A variety of products are at least partially formed from textiles. As examples, articles of apparel (e.g., shirts, pants, socks, jackets, undergarments, footwear), containers (e.g., backpacks, bags), and upholstery for furniture (e.g., chairs, couches, car seats) are often formed from various textile elements that are joined through stitching or adhesive bonding. Textiles may also be utilized in bed coverings (e.g., sheets, blankets), table coverings, towels, flags, tents, sails, and parachutes. Textiles utilized for industrial purposes are commonly referred to as technical textiles and may include structures for automotive and aerospace applications, filter materials, medical textiles (e.g. bandages, swabs, implants), geotextiles for reinforcing embankments, agrotextiles for crop protection, and industrial apparel that protects or insulates against heat and radiation. Accordingly, textiles may be incorporated into a variety of products for both personal and industrial purposes.
Textiles may be defined as any manufacture from fibers, filaments, or yarns having a generally two-dimensional structure (i.e., a length and a width that are substantially greater than a thickness). In general, textiles may be classified as mechanically-manipulated textiles or non-woven textiles. Mechanically-manipulated textiles are often formed by weaving or interlooping (e.g., knitting) a yarn or a plurality of yarns, usually through a mechanical process involving looms or knitting machines. Non-woven textiles are webs or mats of filaments that are bonded, fused, interlocked, or otherwise joined. As an example, a non-woven textile may be formed by randomly depositing a plurality of polymer filaments upon a surface, such as a moving conveyor. Various embossing or calendaring processes may also be utilized to ensure that the non-woven textile has a substantially constant thickness, impart texture to one or both surfaces of the non-woven textile, or further bond or fuse filaments within the non-woven textile to each other. Whereas spunbonded non-woven textiles are formed from filaments having a cross-sectional thickness of 10 to 100 microns, meltblown non-woven textiles are formed from filaments having a cross-sectional thickness of less than 10 microns.